How do classic dystopian writers warn us about threats to literacy... and are those warnings coming true?

Join local author TJ Relk for a discussion on how iconic dystopian novels imagine the manipulation of books, information, and free thought, and a comparison to Relk's own Sins of the Saviors series.

Featured titles include:

• George Orwell’s 1984
• Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World
• Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451
• Cormac McCarthy's The Road
• TJ Relk’s Sins of the Saviors series (Book one and Prequel)

Our discussion will focus on how each author portrays the struggle over books and information, and which vision feels closest to today’s reality. Attendees are encouraged to read at least two of the five titles; all are available through Fairfax County Public Library. Copies of Relk's Sins of the Saviors series will be available for purchase at this event.

Adults

TJ Relk is a local author living in Burke, VA. You can find him on Facebook by following this link.

While waiting for a Gulf War deployment that never happened, TJ Relk wrote the first draft of his Sins of Saviors dystopian science fiction novel. That was 1991.

Relk finished Book 1 of Sins of the Saviors series in 2025, Escape from the Culling Box, which had evolved into a near-future thought experiment that starts with the election of a tech billionaire in 2028. The prequel, The Network Apostate, was published in 2024. It details the transition to a new global order orchestrated by AI.  Both works earned awards and high praise in reader and editorial reviews (Kirkus, Literary Titan, Readers Favorite). 

After he left the military in 1992, Relk hosted a cable access TV show and reported for a variety of Idaho media. He joined the Foreign Service and served for more than 20 years as a political officer in a variety of foreign capitals. Relk published Afghanistan Through the Humvee Window in 2011, a photo book chronicling his assignment in an Afghan border province.